On Thursday at 6pm it was time for the special shapes launch. At first it was looking doubtful because of gusty winds. The Financial Times Tablet cold air inflated and then deflated. At the same time, Fortnum and Mason was fully inflated, but then after ten minutes of tethering, it went down. The Scottish Cup, Minion, Palletways Dragon and Jones Lang LaSalle then inflated and this entertained the crowds. Then the Palletways round balloon and Ricoh Cube joined them. While this was happening, all the ride balloons were lead out and they don’t come out if they’re not flying, so this was a good sign. Paddy Power was hot air inflating too!

More inflated including: Financial Times Tablet, Up, Bristol Balloons, Park Furnishers, Original 106.5, Bailey Balloons, Anana, two Omega Balloons, Visit Bristol, Bath Building Society, BWS Security, A-GAS and Cameron Balloons. Then it was announced we could go flying! Snow White gradually started to inflate as well. The special shapes, round balloons and ride balloons tethered together for five minutes and then took off one by one. Bristol Balloons was first up, closely followed by Original 106.5 and Omega (OMGR). After that it was Park Furnishers to go up. Then the round balloons the went up (first to last)were: Bath Building Society, Anana, A-GAS, Omega, Visit Bristol, Cameron Balloons and BWS Security.

It was time for the special shapes to launch. First was the William Hill Scottish Cup, followed by the Palletways Dragon which was making its second appearance in Bristol this week. The round Palletways balloon went up the second Slick left and trailed behind. Then the brand new Paddy Power Pants made its second flight ever! Swaying in the wind, the Financial Times Tablet and Up balloon lifted at exactly the same time. Snow White was fully inflated and so was the Satzenbrau bottle (BIRE). There was a rumour before the fiesta began that it would be there, and it was right. And we hadn’t seen the last of them yet either!

Now left in the arena we had Snow White, Satzenbrau Bottle, Jones Lang LaSalle, Ricoh Cube and the Minion. There were two more inflating though. The Stowells Wine Box and the Cockerel. The Cockerel was banned from the fiesta in 2012, because in 2011 it landed in an SA (Sensitive Area). This means the landowner doesn’t want it to land there. The Panasonic Battery was now joining in with the action. All of a sudden, the Minion and Snow White lifted into the skies! It was a great site to see.

The Ricoh Cube ascended, nearly catching up with them. Whilst all those special shapes floated across Bristol, the Satzenbrau bottle went down and Stowells got up, tethering. Meanwhile, at the other side of the arena, the Panasonic Battery launched and they almost caught up with Snow White. Jones Lang LaSalle deflated after this. The Cockerel then signified the end of the launch, floating in the sky. This was the end of the flying, but not the tethering. The Stowells Wine Box stayed tethered for about 20 minutes, with the Purple Rain Balloon Team's bottom end. The Satzenbrau bottle special shape was going into its bag, whilst the BBML team got their beer glass out to tether for twenty minutes. It was made in 1979! Then it deflated and action in the arena came to a stop, because preparations for the night glow had began.

The Red Arrows did a wonderful display at 4pm. After that it was time for the mass ascent at 6pm. Unfortunately just before this, one of the stars of the show, the brand new Stuart balloon had been damaged. A huge gust of wind came and Stuart rolled onto another trailer and this ripped the balloon. Luckily the so called 'urgent' repair only took a few hours at the Cameron Balloons Factory in Bedminster. Though after this they didn't actually use that Minion (G-DMES), they used their other Minion which is identical for the rest of the fiesta. This one is registered G-DMEZ. The launch went ahead, but it was not a full mass launch because of the tricky wind conditions. The only special shape to lift was Up. The balloons that took part in the launch were: A-GAS, FT round balloon, Chelsea Finance, Cameron Balloons (G-BZKU & G-CHIO), G-CFXL, G-CGWU, Omega (OMGR), Team GB, Ultra Magic, G-CGVY, Bristol Balloons, Up, Bath Building Society, Taittinger, G-SFSL, Fortnum & Mason, One Show (G-CDIT), Snow Business, Park Furnishers, BT, Co-Operative (OFNC), Visit Bristol, Torex, Virgin, Anana, The Mall, Cash4Cars, Bailey Balloons, Original 106.5, Sapper and Kuhn.

Saturday evening followed the same pattern with special shapes ascending once again. These included: the Panasonic Battery, Scottish Cup, FT Tablet, Cockerel, Ricoh Cube, Palletways Dragon and UP. Meanwhile, the Airship & Balloon Company’s Minion watched over 100 balloons fill the skies of Bristol from Ashton Court, tethered. And when the launch had finished, the BBML tethered their beer mug (G-PUBS) for the second time in 2013. This launch also saw the first appearance of Exclusive Ballooning's Lord Mayors Appeal 2013 balloon G-GIFF.

The night glow went ahead with the usual number of balloons inflating and glowing to music.

Sunday Morning was also another big launch with the FT Tablet G-FTUS, Scottish Cup G-WHIL, Palletways Dragon G-PLLT, Up G-UPOI, Minion G-DMEZ, Cockerel F-GOCO and Ricoh Cube G-RCOH all floating over Bristol. The Minion was the last special shape to go and the last special shape to launch at the 2013 fiesta.

Unfortunately the Sunday evening launch was cancelled due to very gusty winds at times, but a part from that every launch had gone ahead this year! Balloons that tethered were a Cameron balloon and Jones Lang LaSalle. It was brilliant fiesta which must be up there with 1998, 2004 and 2009.